Playoff Beards

It's that time of the year when razors are forsaken and manliness is born not only by a check or a goal, but by number of birds that can dwell in that mass entanglement of blood, hair, sweat and glory.



All hockey fans have known of this ritual by watching beards from Mike Commodore's beard and afro of doom with the Hurricanes to facial growth of Darian Hatcher Bret Hedican, George Parros, Scott Niedermayer, and most recently Colorado's Scott Parker.

see also...

Website Dedicate to playoff beards

Greatest Beards of all time


that should kill some time at work

bac

Session Half Over: The Point of No Return

Is this really I-league? Who cares, it sure is entertaining. The Stickmen narrowly avoid their first loss. The green rink becomes the stage for two incomparable linesmen. And Ellis is outdone in nutty goaltending by Jim DeBaro.

Players of the week:

So many to choose from in this week's dress-up pageant...

1. David Base 4 goals (one game)(enjoy it buddy)

2. Geoffrey Goodson 4 goals (two games)

3. Butch Hutchinson 2 goals

Goalie of the week:

without question, Patrick Donaghue 1 GA, .957 SP

Here's your re-caps:

Stickmen 3, Komets 2 OT, Shoot-out (Vegas: Sticks 5, Komets 0)

The first game of the night looks to take up where last weeks Brewzers/ATM upset left off. Just after the puck drops Scottie Baldree implants the Dustin Nation feed, putting the Komets on top. This unfamiliar position is likely the result of the re-appearance of head coach Al Zarago. Despite Al's astute coaching efforts, the lead is surrendered to the Sticks in the second. But Coach Zarago keeps his team focused and the inspired Dustin Nation sets up the tieing goal for Sean Kier. The Overtime goes without incident as both teams fall exhausted behind their net minders. Everyone in the building stood to attention as the action distilled to the final skills demonstration. And like a fine aged scotch the shooters approached, with locked knees, shuffling toward the nets. But it's Alex #%@*ing Eysermans who does it again. As the second shooter for the Sticks he scores the only shoot-out goal. Hanging in, Blubaugh makes the final, compulsory, diving save/poke check. And this time the favorites steal back victory, pride, and their perfect record from a surprising Komets performance. Al Zarago throws up his hands with a smile, "I told them, all they had to do was go high stickside. Nobody listens to me!" I'm listening Al. Listen up Komets!

Puckers 2, Grave Diggers 1 (Vegas: Diggers 2, Puckers 1)

The Diggers own the only other perfect record at 0-6-0, and they make easy work of the Puckers. Alex "no eyes" Atkins carries the only Diggers goal coast to coast in the first and it looked like the Pucker offense would not be able to answer the call. Not so. Guy Riggs moves it laterally and slides it through the gaping five hole of Jon Ellis. Donaghue does his part and holds off the Diggers until Guy Riggs again puts it in on Ellis, however he has to settle for an assist when Kent Gordon manages to stuff the rebound. The Diggers burn their time-out and generate a lot of shots with an empty net but no twine. As Donaghue hauls another shot into his glove for the whistle, the Puckers call a time-out of their own. Bobby Sirkis snatches the opportunity to draw up a play designed to hit the post, they do, Puckers win.

Iceholes 5, Snipers 1 (Vegas: Iceholes 4, Snipers 1)

David Base, David Base, David Base, David Base... The Iceholes offense was a one man army tonight. The first period is a deadlock with both goaltenders delivering stellar performances, then the second started. Raul Gilbreath put the shot in on Ellis and Dave picks up the rebound. Eysermans ties the game. Then again, it's Gilbreath to Base. In the third Nicholle Palomar takes the initial shot and Dave cleans it up, twice. Then just for kicks, Andrea Cortinas buries the Pringle shot. The key to the game: poor rebound control and suffocating crease pressure from the Holes, pronounced, DAVID BASE! Our condolences to Nick Murphee, Snipers goaltender, who could not attend the game tonight. A moment of silence, please... Nick is on his honeymoon. Married, poor guy.

Warriors 4, Spiders 1 (Vegas: Warriors 3, Spiders 1)

The first couple of periods start off in expected fashion a couple penalties, a couple goals but at the commencing of the third period, the teams notted at one, the brothers Baumgard (the linesmen) take the spotlight and turn it on themselves! Making outstanding call after call, with perfect form they raised there hands and blew whistles. These guys were machines. Possesed with incredible stamina they just kept blowing. Sixteen minutes of penalties in an eleven minute third period. The Warriors manage to keep a scoring rhythm despite the stop-start action and rack-up three goals for an easy win, Geoffrey Goodson gets two of them, Frank Casperson the other. But never fear, the Baumgard's weren't through, they still had twenty four more minutes of penalties to hand out tonight. The training regimen these guys have would intimidate Lance Armstrong. No Lynn, these guys aren't jackasses, they are pros!

Patriots 5, Brewzers 1 (Vegas: Pats 3, Brewzers 0)

The gold rink was certainly a lighter atmosphere. Yes, only one penalty in this game (Sarah "Knuckles" Buckner, two minutes, hooking) but Pat's netminder Jon Ellis (third times the charm) made a spectacle of himself. Late in the first Greg "wee willy winky" Winkleman makes a solo attempt and beats Mike Moore. The next frame sees the Pats roll. With brilliant passing and stupefying awareness, they net goal after beautiful goal. As the gap widened Ellis became more unpredictable. Most of his play takes place at the blue line for this game. Attempting dekes and passes on the fly, most with some success, he manages to hold-off the B-men with the help of his team. But in the middle of the third, as Ellis throws another ill advised pass, the puck finds its way onto the stick of Lori-Kay Frommann. She winds up and blisters one past Sabrina York (trying desperately to cover for her loopy goalie), her first goal, ever? Maybe. The Patriots take the "W" and Mike Moore takes names.

Army of the Twelve Monkeys 6, Blue Devils 1 (Vegas: BD 3, ATM 2)

Showing no signs of fatigue the dynamic duo of Chris and David Baumgard return for another exhileratring exhibition of arm raising prowess. Geoffrey Goodson and Frank Casperson (captivated by the Baumgard performance in their first game) take on another game with similar fortune, they connect for a powerplay goal in the first, Travis gets the second assist. Then another Monkey scores. On the power play again, Travis puts away the Dallas Lehr pass. Mike "heat-seeking" Missel nets the fourth goal for the Monkeys. Ryan Wacker makes a Blue Devils garbage goal, all by himself. Whereupon Geoff and Frank combine again for ATM. Everyone in the building was feeling the frustration as the penalties piled-up and finally Jim DeBaro, BD goalie, could take it no longer. In a manner that would put Jon Ellis to shame he moved out of his net, playing pucks and bodies with alike bravado. A.J. Fierrero puts another on the board for ATM and DeBaro collects a penalty in short order. No more goals but the Baumgard brothers do manage to cram six more minutes of penalties into the final 2:30 of the game, giving them a staggering TWENTY FOUR total penalty minutes for the contest, and they didn't even break a sweat.

Another outstanding night of beer league hockey. Halfway through and it's gettin' hot in hur. Only one team left unblemished and they stumbled this week. Can they keep it together next week...

bcIII

'Did he shoot that into his own net?'

This one is dedidicated to my old friend and loyal Komet Kevin Kopsky. Enjoy, Kevin.


-- BC

The Wonders of the Internet

The other day I decided to do an image search on "ringer". I came up with a few things that I thought were interesting and included them in a couple of posts. The greatest was the discovery of semi-super villain Ringer, from Marvel. Very few images available but enough to do something with:

From there it was a short leap to fellow do-badder Coachwhip. This villainess doesn't have much but she does enjoy ridiculing Ringer and has a relevant name.

Image searches are still one of my favorite things to do on the net. Probably the only activity I enjoy more is Youtube searches, well, one of two things I enjoy more. For some reason I got this song stuck in my head and couldn't find it in an mp3 anywhere. I did find it here, enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihss5GYc2-w, be aware, this is mental hemlock.

Hopefully I have directed you down a path that will waste the last couple of your Friday work hours.

bcIII

P.S. I am re-issuing this, because I really like it!

I-League Coaches, Oxymoron?

Sure, I-league is more or less a nominal thing in Euless. We have only one practice per session. Very few attend the practice. We have a play-off and championship. We've even had an all-star game. However we do still have coaches, well, most of us, or a person posing as a coach. Enough qualifiers, coaches are around.

What does it take to be an I-league coach, you say? Look to Al Zarago, (part time) Komets' head coach. A veteran of the game, he played throughout his childhood somewhere up in the great white North, I think. And at his age that means years and years and years of experience, and even more years, too. Always elevating the level of play with positive comments and insightful pointers. Drawing up elegant (meaning, simple) plays for the Komets to make the most of their... talents, ahem.

Then there's Cody Bateman, new coach for the Snipers. Mr. Bateman is a native, but has also played most of his considerably shorter life. Hockey is all this guy thinks about. He is still active in multiple adult leagues and his day job is ice maintenance for the local NHL affiliate at the American Airlines Center. No matter his resume, who would doubt the man behind the Sniper's amazing turn around. Truly an amazing hockey mind.

So what if you just can't let go, look to Nate Hodges or Bobby Sirkis, Jr. Now they may have once been I-league ringers, but despite a serious deficiency in coaching abilities, these two have managed to doop several teams into allowing them to pilot the ship. As Bobby told me, "What's to coaching? You just fill-out the roster, and look good behind the bench." Maybe this could be your path.

Then there's the Brewzer's coach... Wait, they have a coach? I mean that was an historic victory over the Monkeys last week, but I never saw a coach. Andrew Thomas? Who's that? Well, okay. Andrew Thomas, the epitome of an I-league coach!

I would have commented on Mark "Smitty" Smith, but I don't know a great deal about his experience, he must be a very astute individual as he is always complementing me after games.

I must have missed several of the active coaches in our league, but they have missed plenty of our games, right? The point is, coaches play many roles in this thing of ours and I think that what they do is very honorable. So you think you know how to do it better than your coach? Just remember that the "I" often goes for these men behind the bench also. Or maybe you should just show us all how it's done. Let's see what you can do with a bunch of old farts and a dry erase board!

bcIII

Here's the latest from Vegas:

Stickmen 5, Komets 0

Grave Diggers 2, Puckers 1

Iceholes 4, Snipers 1

Warriors 3, Spiders 1

Patriots 3, Brewzers 0

Blue Devils 3, Army of the Twelve Monkeys 2

P.S. Check this guy out if you have some time to kill, what a loser!

Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

The building excitement tonight was thick, choking, palpable, only the true I-league heroes would survive, here is their story...

Players of the week:
Alex Eysermans, 3 goals in 2 games (game tying and overtime goal for the win)
Eric Johnson, 2 goals
Tim Brady, 2 goals

Goalie of the week:
Mike Moore .889 save percentage is not the best stat for the week, but if you saw the game you wouldn't argue.

honorable mention to Patrick Donaghue


Puckers 1, Snipers 2 (Vegas: Puckers 4, Snipers 3)

The amazing Patrick Donaghue vows to finish the session. Scoring was no where near expected and it looked like the Solitary goal from Chris Kirton, halfway through the second would stand-up. The Snipers were out shooting the Puckers but Donaghue had an answer for every one. As the third started it was plain to see that Patrick's shoulder was weighing heavy on his game. Within two minutes the score was tied as everyone's favorite pesky winger Kevin Cook sets up the goal for Jesse Henderson (the phrase "sets up" is used loosely as Kevin seems to have no idea what he is about to do). With plenty of time left in the third, Chris Davis scores the lead change with the help of Jesse Henderson (he's a scorer, he's a playmaker, Where has he been before tonight?). But tonight the Puckers fall short and limp to the final buzzer, win number two for the Snipers, a streak?

Spiders 3, Komets 2 (Vegas: Spiders 3, Komets 1)

No surprises here, the Komets are still floundering and the Spiders are strong as ever. Kris Navarro nets the first arachnid goal on the Pete Clark assist. Just over a minute later Pete takes the puck coast to coast and tallies a single handed goal for the cushion. The Komets don't let the period end without returning some pushin' Dustin Nation, a consistent scorer, brings it within one. The second is filled with... one penalty, nothing else. The Spiders pour it on in the third, Patty Greco to Freddy Gilbert. Andrew Patti gets a little over zealous protecting the lead and gives the Komets a power play, which they cannot take advantage of. With almost two minutes left Rich Duval brings the Komets to the brink but no one follows his lead. The Komets never even get the opportunity to pull their goalie in the face of the Spider's offense.

Stickmen 4, Grave Diggers 1 (Vegas: Stickmen 4, GD 1)

I hear a lot of people lost a lot of money on this match-up, the so-called experts judged the spread to be too small, and many saw a shut-out in the cards. Alex Eysermans gets credit for the ugly goal in the first as it slithered and bounced off of everything on the rink before crawling through Jon Ellis' five hole. But the shooting on both ends of the rink goes for naught for 18 minutes. At the commencing of the third period Blubaugh blinks and loses the lead to Alex Atkins on the pass from "ER's" Anthony Edwards (got his autograph, loved him on Northern Exposure). It looked like it would be one for the ages as both tenders made spectacular save after spectacular save, not so. Ellis withers under the pressure, surrendering the net to Brad Bynum, and twice to Timothy Schmidt. The sceptics are saying it may be point shaving. Blubaugh says "You got what you deserved, Ellis, it's karma". There's no telling how big this thing is.

Warriors 3, Blue Devils 2 (Vegas: Blue Devils 3, Warriors 2)

The Warriors have little regard for the opening periods, but who can complain with only one loss on the record. Of course the early lead goes to the surging Blue Devils. Bobby Michaelides made the initial save on Ryan Wacker's shot but he can't hang on to the rebound. After fumbling a cover, and muffing a clear attempt, Ryan regains control and sends a beauty from an inch off the goal line through the posts, top shelf. It would prove to be a meaningless score. Ryan made most of his impact in the box. The Warriors get a rare first period goal (Eric Johnson), BD then wrestles back the lead on a shorty from Patrick Maddocks. For most teams this would mean the end, not the Warriors. Battling back in their favorite period, Eric nets another, followed by Clark Sandlin. The Blue Devils collected 14 minutes worth of penalties (with Olsen, he let's everything go!) they needed a couple more shorthanded goals, no small task against the Warriors.

Patriots 2, Iceholes 1 (Vegas: Patriots 3, Iceholes 1)

Iceholes goalie, Mark Johnson, was on fire. He had to be. Shots from every corner of the rink all end up in his possession. The Patriots keep coming at him but the first goal goes to the Iceholes. On a breakaway allowed by the bloodthirsty Patriot offense, Mark Dunning undresses Jon Ellis, putting it easily between the post and his prone left leg. The second ended and hockey savant Troy Ramsey puts the Patriots on his back grabbing the Sabrina York rebound and driving it home before a minute passes in the third. Ellis manages to stop the few shots headed his way, and Johnson does the same, except for one tiny rebound. A shot that burrowed through his elbow and landed lifeless at his right hip. Bryan Brookman pounces, Johnson never saw it coming. The Icehole's hopes for a comeback die as they collect a two minute interference penalty with 2:03 left on the clock.

Brewzers 3, Army of the Twelve Monkeys 2, OT, Shoot-out (Vegas: ATM 6, Brewzers 1!)

Who saw this coming? The winless Brewzers shock the world in the last game of the evening, like a movie script. 1980 all over again. In a beautiful game, A. J. Fierrero takes the only penalty of the game, a high sticking, half way through the opening frame. ATM keeps the Brewzers out of the net for those two minutes, but back at even strength, Jamil Al Jabri locks and loads and puts the Brewzers on track for a terrific upset. Tim Brady scores in the second, again in the third, the indomitable Brewzers counter with Alex Eyserman's reckoning. The glass in the crossbar was rattling throughout the remainder of regulation, then the over time. The contest would be decided by two men, Phil Talley, a keg veteran, and Mike Moore, carrying the weight of five consecutive losses. Shooters lined up for their chance at history. Phil and Mike turned away the requisite three calling out for more. Alex Eysermans, who brought his team to this juncture, finally imposes his will on the dumbfounded Talley. The Army of the Twelve Monkeys had only one opportunity to save what was left of their dignity, Mike Moore was at a crossroads. Tim Brady took the gamepiece at center ice, carried it down to the net and tried to deke Moore out of position, and ended by putting it into Mike's gear. Pandemonium!


What an incredible conclusion for an otherwise lackluster night. If you left early you missed a legendary I-league moment. Let that be a lesson to all of you.

bcIII